Avoiding succumbing to emotion then is about smoothing out the ride and understanding that true diversification means that not every holding should go up along with a raging bull market. The easy example of this is gold which takes a beating, sentiment wise, for being negative for however many years as the S&P 500 has rocketed higher. Many people who own gold do so because it tends to not look like the domestic equity market and despite all the noise that continues to be the case.
A recent post looked at myopic loss aversion which is acting out based on short term emotion at the expense of long term wellbeing. It can’t be stressed enough that the short term does not matter for most post people. At 65 or 70 or some other desired retirement age an investor either has enough or they don’t. Lagging by 5% one year for having too much small cap or lagging by 6% another year for not enough emerging market exposure is not a difference maker to having enough money when it is needed.
Difference makers will be the types of things mentioned above like savings rates and panicking. Alternatives, whether that means inverse treasury funds or the myriad of many other products designed to smooth out the ride help prevent panics even if they do drag returns slightly when the event being protected against isn’t currently playing out.
A financial plan will not be done in by small drags on returns or a little too much of one thing or not quite enough of something else. The bigger threats are emotions, extremely risky behavior like putting a quarter of a portfolio into a lottery ticket biotech, poor savings habits and unrealistic spending habits.